Reviews

Initially drawn in by the beautifully colourful artwork I wasn't expecting too much from this anime other than a fun experience. The premise seemed interesting enough and good for some escapism but unfortunately as the series progressed it became dull and flat to anyone outside a narrow audience. The main character Shiro, is your standard -insert self here- I'm going to show everyone i'm cool really, and his sister is basically just an extension of him with cute panties (she does at least have quite fetching hair and wears a crown well). She talks in monotone and may as well be his pokedex except with an attachment disorder, which would be fine if we got a window into that but from the shallow level at which the characters are handled and from what I've read since I think it's unlikely to happen.

Shiro is an incredibly unlikable character which in itself wouldn't be a problem, I don't mind characters who are arrogant and cruel necessarily but there's no motive or reasoning behind it, even if we are to believe he's oblivious to it it's not presented as saying anything about who he is that he acts that way, beyond he isn't that bothered about morals and doesn't really care about the world. Stephanie a side character whose use as comedy value is cringe worthy, is even more badly developed, her personality is completely inconsistent as she just exists for gags, ones that are more degrading than funny. Watching her fail miserably again and again in episode 5 just pulled the plug on this anime for me, while she is also not a particularly likeable character, Shiro and his sister treat her terribly for no real reason, and the show seems to justify this by her been seen as being stupid and successful.

As for the plot, you already know from the beginning that -blank- will win every game, fine okay that isn't necessarily a bad thing but the how isn't particularly interesting either, while it's fine that the enemy character doesn't know the 'rules' or 'limitations' and as such -blank- can bend or cheat them to show us an impressive tactical win. The audience don't either, so it really just ends up being a case of the plot bending to be 'oh by the way this is totally a thing now'. Exactly like if you play a game with a child and they pull the whole 'btw my character can now fly' 'my character now has infinity health' 'well my character now has infinity health +1' and thus our neet has found a world where he can't lose, not because he's super smart or amazing at game theory but because it's bend that way to accommodate him, as are all the cute girls in it. Fanservice isn't a bad thing, but with some capable writing it could actually just be integrated into the plot properly.